SESSION OF PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND.
The parliament of England meeting on the twenty-ninth day of October, the queen in her speech, observed, that the great and remarkable success with which God had blessed her arms, produced unanimous joy and satisfaction through all parts of the kingdom; and that a timely improvement of the present advantages would enable her to procure a lasting foundation of security for England, as well as a firm support for the liberty of Europe. She declared her intention was to be kind and indulgent to all her subjects. She expressed her hope that they would do nothing to endanger the loss of this opportunity; and that there would be no contention among them, but an emulation to promote the public welfare. Congratulatory addresses were voted and presented by both houses. They were equal in their professions of duty and affection to the queen; but the addresses imbibed a very different colour from the different sanctions by which the two houses were influenced. The lords congratulated her on the great and glorious success of her arms under the command of the duke of Marlborough, without deigning to mention sir George Rooke, who had defeated the French navy at sea, and added the important fortress of Gibraltar to the British conquests. On the other hand, the commons affected to mention the battle of Blenheim, and Rooke’s naval victory, as events of equal glory and importance. However they might be warped by prejudice against individuals, they did not suffer the war to languish for want of supplies. Having taken into consideration the services of the army and navy, they voted that the queen should be desired to bestow her bounty on the seamen and land forces who had behaved themselves so gallantly. Then they deliberated upon the different articles of national expense, and granted four millions six hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and thirty-one pounds, for the occasion’s of the ensuing year, to be raised by a land tax, by the sale of annuities, and other expedients. These measures were taken with such expedition, that the land tax received the royal assent on the ninth day of December; when the queen, in a short speech, thanked the commons for their despatch, which she considered a sure pledge of their affection.
AN ACT OF ALIENATION PASSED.
The high church party took this occasion to promote the bill against occasional conformity, which was revived and brought into the house in a new model by Mr. William Bromley, who moved that it might be tacked to the land-tax bill, and sent up to the lords for their concurrence. The court no longer espoused this measure, and the violent party was weakened by defection. After a warm and tedious debate, the tack was rejected by a great majority. The bill, however, passed the house of commons, and was sent up to the lords on the fourteenth day of December, when it would hardly have excited a debate had not the queen been present, and desirous of hearing what could be said on both sides of the question. For the information and satisfaction of her majesty the subject was again discussed, and all the arguments being repeated, the bill was rejected by a majority of one-and-twenty voices. The next subject on which the house of lords employed their attention, was the late conduct of the Scottish parliament. The lord Haversham, in a set speech, observed, that the settlement of the succession in Scotland had been postponed, partly because the ministry for that kingdom were weak and divided; partly from a received opinion that the succession was never sincerely and cordially intended by those who managed the affairs of Scotland in the cabinet-council. He expatiated on the bad consequences that might attend the act of security, which he styled a bill of exclusion, and particularly mentioned that clause by which the heritors and boroughs were ordained to exercise their fencible men every month. He said the nobility and gentry of Scotland were as learned and brave as any nation in Europe, and generally discontented: that the common people were very numerous, very stout, and very poor; and he asked who was the man that could tell what such a multitude, so armed, and so disciplined, might do under such leaders could opportunities suit their intention. He recommended these circumstances to the consideration of the house, and concluded with these words of Lord Bacon, “Let men beware how they neglect or suffer matter of troubles to be prepared, for no man can forbid the sparks that may set all on fire.” The lords resolved to consider these subjects on the twenty-ninth day of November, when the queen repaired to the house of peers to hear the debates, and by her presence moderate the heat of both parties. The earl of Nottingham reflected so severely on the memory of king William, that he would have been sent to the Tower, had not the lords declined any such motion out of respect to her majesty. After much declamation on the Scottish act of security, the grand committee of the peers, by the advice of lord Wharton, resolved that the queen should be enabled by act of parliament on the part of England, to name commissioners to treat about an union with Scotland, provided that the parliament of Scotland should first appoint commissioners on their part for the same purpose; that no Scotsmen should enjoy the privileges of Englishmen, except such as were settled in England, Ireland, and the plantations, and such as were or might be in the sea or land service, until an union could be effected, or the succession settled as in England: that the traffic by cattle from Scotland to England should be prevented: that the lord admiral should issue orders for taking such vessels as should be found trading from Scotland to France, or to the ports of any of her majesty’s enemies: and that care should be taken to prevent the exportation of English wool into Scotland. On these resolutions a bill was formed for an entire union, and passed the house on the twentieth day of December. The lords presented an address to the queen, representing that they had duly weighed the dangerous and pernicious effects that were likely to be produced by divers acts of parliament lately passed in Scotland: that they were of opinion the safety of the kingdom required that speedy and effectual orders should be given to put Newcastle in a posture of defence, to secure the port of Tynemouth, and repair the fortifications of Hull and Carlisle. They likewise advised her majesty to give directions for disciplining the militia of the four northern counties; for providing them with arms and ammunition; for maintaining a competent number of regular troops on the northern borders of England, as well as in the north of Ireland; and for putting the laws in execution against papists. The queen promised that a survey should be made of the places they had mentioned, and laid before parliament, and that she would give the necessary directions upon the other articles of the address. The commons seemed to concur with the lords in their sentiments of the Scottish act of security. They resolved that a bill should be brought in for the effectual securing the kingdom of England from the apparent dangers that might arise from several acts lately passed in the parliament of Scotland, and this was formed on nearly the same resolutions which had been taken in the upper house. The bill sent down by the lords was thrice read, and ordered to lie on the table, but they passed their own, to take effect at Christmas, provided before that time the Scots should not settle the succession. When it was offered to the lords they passed it without any amendment, contrary to the expectation and even to the hope of some members who were no friends to the house of Hanover, and firmly believed the lords would have treated this bill with the same contempt which had been manifested for that which they had sent down to the commons.
The duke of Marlborough, at his first appearance in the house after his return to England, was honoured with a very extraordinary eulogium, pronounced by the lord-keeper, in the name of the peers of England; and a compliment of the same nature was presented to him by a committee of the house of commons. Doctor Delaune, vice-chancellor of Oxford, accompanied by the principal members of the University, attended the queen with an address of congratulation upon the success of her arms in Germany, under the admirable conduct and invincible courage of the duke of Marlborough; and at sea, under the most brave and faithful admiral sir George Booke. He received a civil answer from her majesty, though now she took umbrage at Booke’s being raised upon a level with the duke of Marlborough, whose great victories had captivated her administration, and whose wife had alienated her affection from the tories. The commons perceiving how high he stood in her majesty’s esteem, and having been properly tutored for the purpose, took into consideration the great services of the duke; and, in an address, besought her majesty to consider some proper means to perpetuate the memory of such noble actions. In a few days she gave them to understand, by a message that she was inclined to grant the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wooton, to the duke of Marlborough and his heirs; and that as the lieutenancy and rangership of the parks, with the rents and profits of the manors and hundreds, were granted for two lives, she wished that incumbrance could be removed. A bill was immediately brought in, enabling the queen to bestow these honours and manors on the duke of Marlborough and his heirs, and the queen was desired to advance the money for clearing the incumbrances. She not only complied with this address, but likewise ordered the comptroller of her works to build in Woodstock-park a magnificent palace for the duke, upon a plan much more solid than beautiful. By this time sir George Rooke was laid aside, and the command of the fleet bestowed upon sir Cloudesley Shovel, now declared rear-admiral of England. Mareschal de Tallard, with the other French generals taken at Hochstadt, arrived on the sixteenth of December in the river Thames, and were immediately conveyed to Nottingham and Lichfield, attended by a detachment of the royal regiment of horse guards. They were treated with great respect, and allowed the privilege of riding ten miles around the places of their confinement.
ANNE, 1701—1714